March 28
SAUDI ARABIA:
UN experts urge Saudi regime to halt execution of 15 Shia Muslims for alleged
charges
UN experts showed their concern over the imminent execution threat of the Shia
detainee Abbas Al Hassan after allegedly being charged of spying for Iran,
financing terrorism and spreading the Shia faith. The UN experts also called
upon the Saudi regime to annul the death penalty.
7 United Nations rapporteurs issued a statement and called upon Saudi Arabia to
halt executions that threaten the lives of Shia Muslims Abbas Hassan and others
individuals accused of alleged espionage for Iran in Saudi Arabia.
The 7 UN rapporteurs who participated in issuing the statement are: the Special
Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions (Ms. Agnes Callamard), the Special
Rapporteur on torture and other cruel treatment (Mr. Nils Melzer), the Special
Rapporteur on promotion and protecting of human rights while countering
terrorism (Mrs. Fionnuala D. Ni Aolain), the Special Rapporteur on independence
of judges and lawyers (Mr. Diego Garcia - Sayan), the current Chair- Rapporteur
of the working Group on Arbitrary Detention (Mr. Jose Antonio Guevara Bermude),
the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief (Mr. Ahmed Shaheed),
the Special Rapporteur on the right to health (Mr. DainiusPuras)
The rapporteurs called upon Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of others 14
individuals who also wrongly accused of spying for Iran. The statement declared
that the Specialized Criminal Court has sentenced Abbas AlHassan and other 14
prisoners to death in December 2016, and confirmed the verdict in July &
December 2017.
Furthermore, the rapporteurs noted that the case is currently in the Presidency
of State Security and waiting for the King's ratification. The rapporteurs
expressed their concern over the individuals from being subjected to torture
during their investigation to obtain confessions, and the death sentences were
based on evidences that extracted under torture.
The statement also noted the concern of the experts about the physical safety
and mental health of the individuals, after being torture and the subsequent
deprivation of adequate medical care by prison authorities.
In addition, the rapporteurs pointed out that the 15 individuals were held in
incommunicado for up to three months, and their lawyers were denied access to
the evidence and did not have enough time to prepare an adequate defense.
They also indicated that the death sentences were unrelated to the "most
serious crimes" which contradicts the international law in concerning crimes on
which the death sentences are based.
Moreover, the rapporteurs confirmed that the individuals should be retried
under the conditions of fair trial and judicial guarantees. The rapporteurs
also called upon the Saudi government to impose moratorium on capital
punishment and consider its full abolition.
(source: AhlulBayt News Agency)
PAKISTAN:
She's Standing Up for Pakistani Prisoners Sentenced to Die----Because even the
worst criminals deserve someone in their corner.
In a country where 491 executions have taken place since December 2014, when
the death penalty moratorium was lifted in response to the Army Public School
terrorist attack in Peshawar, one organization, the Justice Project Pakistan
(JPP), offers hope for the country's 8,200 prisoners on death row.
Sarah Belal, a 39-year-old human-rights lawyer, founded JPP in 2009 to try to
change Pakistan's standing as the world's "5th most prolific executioner,"
after China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. As executive director, she leads a
small team providing free legal assistance to underprivileged prisoners
battling mental illness, victims of police brutality or the war on terror and
Pakistani migrant workers incarcerated overseas.
On a Friday afternoon during prayer break, Belal, who received the inaugural
Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law in 2016, greets me at
the JPP's headquarters in a picturesque neighborhood in Lahore. Dressed in a
sleeveless summer blouse and pants, she has a pixie haircut that complements
her petite frame.
Belal, born to a family steeped in business and academics, studied law at
Oxford University and then branched out into human-rights work after completing
a postgraduate program in 2007. "[I knew] death penalty work was never going to
be happy work," she says plainly. "I think you have to have something that
connects you to the cause; otherwise you can't really do it - why would you?"
For her, that connection was Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Khan, an employee of the Pakistan
Navy convicted in 1998 for killing two men - allegedly in self-defense. After
reading an urgent letter of appeal from Khan in a local English newspaper in
2009, Belal worked the channels until she was put in touch with Khan's brother.
But the young lawyer had just graduated and the case was exceedingly complex;
Belal's mentors, criminal law experts, gave the prisoner slim odds of being
released. Khan was executed in 2015.
Close
"It was horrific," Belal says. "The reasons why people dedicate their lives to
this field are as varied as the people in this line of work. I'm still trying
to figure out what mine is. Perhaps it's a basic fear of death. To me,
imagining somebody knowing the time they're going to die and being physically
incapable of stopping it is just the worst thing you can ever do to a human
being."
Besides representing the poorest Pakistani prisoners at home and abroad, JPP
produced a mental-health manual for the local law community, advocates against
the death penalty and for freedom of information and organizes workshops for
judges and lawyers. Drawing on their own expertise and relying on forensic
psychiatrists and jurists from the United States, they've trained 10 Lahore
High Court judges and 200 district judges within Punjab (where 83 % of
executions occur). The next goal, Belal says, is to raise funds to reach the
remaining districts in the province and begin training prison officials.
"Under our laws, mentally ill persons cannot be tried," she explains. But when
there's no interaction between mental-health experts and legal practitioners,
lawyers and judges routinely overlook or misdiagnose mentally ill defendants,
making it difficult for them to get a fair trial. "The fact that we have
mentally ill and intellectually disabled persons on death row in Pakistan is
because the stakeholders involved have very little understanding of mental
illness."
Understanding is key, but Zainab Mahboob, who has worked with the JPP since
2014, says the greater obstacle is a failure of will to improve the system. "No
one is willing to change anything in Pakistan," she says. "Our work entails
meeting a lot of government officials, and most of them are not ready to take
any responsibility." What's more, Mahboob says, there's an absence of
compassion. "When we visit local hospitals or the home department, the reaction
always is, 'Oh, so you're here to save the killers.'"
In 2013, Belal won the prestigious Echoing Green Global Fellowship - making JPP
the 1st Pakistani organization to be recognized in the fellowship???s 25-year
history.
To be fair, most of JPP's clients and other prisoners sentenced to die have
been convicted of very serious crimes and the victims' families are entitled to
seek justice. Take, for instance, the horrific rape and murder of a 7-year-old
girl this past January. The man accused, Imran Ali - now on death row - was
linked to at least 8 similar cases involving minors. For such hardened
criminals who exhibit a complete disregard for human life, many argue that
capital punishment is the only solution.
"For desperate and dangerous criminals who show no mercy or remorse, a harsher
view is adopted," says Salman Safdar, a Lahore-based criminal lawyer who has
handled roughly 1,500 death-penalty cases. "Wrongful convictions are very
common in this part of the world, but despite all the controversies and
shortcomings in the system, the death sentence is rightly kept and not
abolished as there are a significant number of cases almost every month where
extreme penalty is the appropriate solution."
But the death penalty debate offers no easy answers - or room for middle
ground. Lahore attorney Asad Jamal is staunchly opposed to a punishment he
calls cruel, degrading and irreversible. "The idea of rehabilitation is simply
excluded when you support capital punishment," he says, adding that there is a
high margin for error in police investigations.
As the debate continues to swirl, Belal tries to educate the public through
grassroots efforts such as Intezaar ("The Wait"), a theater production based on
real-life death penalty cases, and #BringItBack, a social-media campaign
highlighting the system's potential abuses and calling on the government to
restore the moratorium.
Still, Belal knows she's fighting an uphill battle - 78 % of Pakistanis favor
capital punishment. And her struggle is both political and personal. "When I
joined the profession, I was discriminated against more because of my
socioeconomic background and also because I'm a woman," she says. There is a
need, she says, to bring more foreign-educated lawyers into Pakistan's legal
system - along with greater female representation. "We need more women in the
bar and the bench, in positions of power," Belal says. "I think it's absolutely
atrocious that we haven't had a single female judge of the Supreme Court in the
history of this country."
Looking ahead, Belal says her goal is to build an institution that survives
"the cult of personality" that dominates human-rights work in Pakistan. "It
should not be all about me," she says, before hurriedly packing up her laptop.
Prayer time is over.
(source: Sonya Rehman, OZY.com)
********************
Mother confesses killing children; demands capital punishment
A woman accused of killing her 3 children has confessed her crime before police
and demanded public execution for herself, ARY News reported on Tuesday.
The woman and her boyfriend were arrested a few days ago from Askari-XI area of
Lahore after police recovered bodies of 3 children from their apartment. The
children were identified as nine-year old Zainul Abedin, 6-year-old Kaneez
Fatima and 4-year-old Ibrahim.
"I am a murderer, I want public execution (for myself), these 3 were innocent,
martyrs," the accused, Aneeqa, told police.
Aneeqa maintained that she had separated from her husband seven year ago and
was since living with her boyfriend.
She added that she had a heated argument with her boyfriend and was intoxicated
when she killed her children.
Aneeqa claimed that her boyfriend wanted her to hand over her children to her
former husband.
(source: arynews.tv)
JAPAN:
U.N. warns Japan against hanging Aum cult figures currently seeking retrial
The U.N. Human Rights Office has called into question Japan???s possible
execution of Aum Shinrikyo cult figures on death row who are seeking a retrial.
"We do note that some of the defendants in this case are reportedly requesting
a retrial," Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the office, said in a written
interview with Kyodo News.
"Execution of individuals with appeals or other proceedings still pending is
against the U.N. Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those
Facing the Death Penalty," she said.
Death sentences have been finalized for 13 members of the cult, including Aum
founder Shoko Asahara, 63, who masterminded the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on
the Tokyo subway system that killed 13 people and left over 6,000 people ill.
Earlier this month, the Justice Ministry transferred 7 of the 13 on death row
from the Tokyo detention center to other facilities across the country, likely
bringing them a step closer to execution.
Japan has long tended to avoid executing death-row inmates while their retrial
pleas were pending, but last year then-Justice Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda said
such a plea does not impede an execution.
All 13 inmates sentenced to death for crimes committed while members of the
doomsday cult, including Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, had been
housed in the Tokyo detention facility. Asahara remains in the facility,
government sources said earlier.
The U.N. safeguards, adopted in 1984, partly stipulate that capital punishment
"shall not be carried out pending any appeal or other recourse procedure or
other proceeding relating to pardon or commutation of the sentence."
"The U.N. Human Rights Office advocates for full abolition of the death
penalty, and we have in our discussions with the Japanese government urged them
to consider abolition," the spokeswoman said.
(source: Japan Times)
************************
Photos flash spotlight on everyday lives of prisoners in Japan
A weeklong photo exhibition being held next month will aim to shed light on the
everyday lives of inmates of Japanese prisons and promote public awareness
about the challenges the country's criminal justice system faces.
Around 60 photos, which were taken by 6 photography majors of Tokyo Polytechnic
University with permission of the Justice Ministry, will be displayed at Hibiya
Library & Museum in Hibiya Park, central Tokyo, from April 1 to 7.
The students visited 6 penal detention facilities in and around the capital to
take photos of the daily routines of prisoners and correctional officers as
part of the Japan Social Justice Project, which was initiated by a Japanese
human rights group and the University of Reading in Britain.
Maiko Tagusari, secretary general of the Center for Prisoners' Rights, says the
project promotes public awareness about the methods of criminal rehabilitation
as well as whether capital punishment should be maintained or terminated, among
other issues.
"It was a rare opportunity for ordinary citizens to take photos from inside
prisons so people will know what prisons are, and we expect the photos will
inspire the public to start serious debates on how the criminal justice should
be," said Tagusari, who is also a Tokyo-based lawyer.
The upcoming photo exhibition, which offers free admission, will mark the
launch of "CrimeInfo" -- a website for the social justice project which is
subsidized by the European Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
the Netherlands, Tagusari said.
CPR, which receives inquiries from inmates, has worked for more than 20 years
for improving their circumstances.
On the website, the CPR and the British university plan to introduce statistics
on the numbers of executions or parolees, as well as other various documents,
such as books, research papers and news stories for the use of researchers and
journalists.
"We will also provide file footage relating to the criminal justice system and
records of the justice minister's press conferences," Tagusari said.
The file footage is expected to be used as educational material, particularly
for high school students to deepen their understanding about Japan's criminal
justice system.
Seiya Matsumura, a senior, was among the six who photographed the prisons. Most
of his photos thus far have focused on day laborers and people living in
severely ostracized "buraku" districts as well as the northeastern Japan areas
affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster.
"Before visiting the prisons, I thought they would be a place like they're
depicted on TV and in the movies, under stone-cold surroundings with many
former delinquents," Matsumura, 22, said.
"But at a female prison, for example, an old woman was walking with the support
of prison guards, and it made me wonder if she really committed a crime and if
it is really a correctional facility. I confused the prison with a welfare
institution."
Matsumura said he noticed the prisons were insufficient in terms of adequate
standards of living, such as providing proper heating and cooling facilities.
"While it is a punishment for them to have their freedom taken away, they
should be guaranteed the same level of living conditions as the general public
even at prisons," Matsumura said. "Their food, however, looked better than what
college students living alone like me eat."
His photos include a community cell, a carpenter shop and female prisoners
being trained to cut hair.
The URL of the upcoming website of Japan Social Justice Project is
http://crimeinfo.jp/
The website will grow as the project members will continuously upload further
information to it.
(source: Japan Today)
CHINA:
Death penalty for 'godfather' of Chinese coal mining town over US$160 million
in bribes----Zhang Zhongsheng showed 'extreme greed' and was handed most severe
punishment for 'big losses he caused to the nation and the people', court rules
A former vice-mayor of a poverty-stricken city in the coal-rich province of
Shanxi was on Wednesday sentenced to death, without reprieve, for accepting
over 1 billion yuan in bribes (US$160 million). The sentencing of Zhang
Zhongsheng - known for his splendid hilltop mansions and dubbed the "godfather"
because of his influence and power in the city of Luliang - was an unusually
harsh punishment for economic crimes, even since President Xi Jinping took
power in 2012 and started an unprecedented crackdown on corruption.
Zhang can still appeal the sentence handed down by the Intermediate People's
Court of Linfen, and the death penalty must be approved by the supreme court in
Beijing.
In sentencing, the court said Zhang had shown "extreme" greed in taking bribes,
according to Xinhua.
Shanxi, in the north, was targeted by Xi's anti-graft campaign in 2013,
described as one of the country's "disaster zones" that was suffering from a
"landslide of corruption" among local officials, leading to a flurry of arrests
of its political and business elite.
Zhang, 65, a short, bullish man, worked in local government for about 40 years
before he came under investigation by the party's graft-busters in 2014. The
court found Zhang accepted more than 1.04 billion yuan in bribes from 1997 to
2013, and in return he eased the way for entrepreneurs in the city, approving
and granting licences for coal mine mergers and other projects, Xinhua
reported.
Zhang was also unable to explain the source of over 130 million yuan of
personal assets, according to the ruling.
The court said the amounts involved were "extremely large", particularly in 2
cases.
"2 out of the 18 bribery cases concerned over 200 million yuan, and he asked
for bribes of 88.68 million yuan," the court said.
Zhang had not returned over 300 million yuan of these bribes, the court said.
It described Zhang as "contemptuous of rules and laws" and "extremely greedy",
saying he did not restrain himself even amid the nationwide anti-graft drive,
concluding that he deserved the most severe punishment for "the big losses he
caused to the nation and the people".
Nestled in the mountains of the dusty Loess Plateau, Luliang is best known for
having served as a base for the Red Army during the second world war. Nearly 70
years since the Communist Party took power in China, Luliang still lags behind
the rest of the country, with 1/5 of its population of 3.7 million living in
poverty. Yet its rich deposits of coal have fuelled frenetic investment over
the past decade, turning some mine owners into millionaires.
According to a 3-month investigation into corruption in Luliang in 2014 by
financial magazine Caixin, some of the area's businessmen claim to have spent
US$150,000 a year bribing officials who, like Zhang, controlled the mines and
could close them down if they were deemed unsafe.
Anbang's ex-chairman goes on trial as China cracks down on freewheeling deal
makers
"This is a typical case showing how officials, even the low-ranking ones, can
easily amass a huge amount of wealth by wielding their influence to allocate
resources," said Hu Xingdou, an independent political economist.
"This is a heavy price to pay for using your administrative power to manipulate
the system," he said.
(source: South China Morning Post)
SINGAPORE:
Countries Using the Death Penalty for Drug Dealers: It Works in Singapore
In the 1st article in this series, I described the ravages of an opioid crisis
which is killing tens of thousands of victims each year. I also described some
proposals to apply more stringent punishments, including the death penalty, to
the dealers -- especially the higher-ups trafficking drugs.
It's an approach that really works, as reflected in the success stories of
applying the penalty in Singapore and China. This doesn't mean that the problem
is entirely eradicated. But both countries have experienced marked declines in
both drug trafficking and use, along with a decline in the kinds of crimes
often associated with drug dealing, such as gang wars and drive-by shootings
between rival gangs. You might consider these approaches used in other
countries like pilot programs for implementing harsher penalties in the U.S.
While there are already 4 types of capital punishment for drug-related crimes
-- murder committed during a drug-related drive-by shooting, a murder committed
with a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, a murder related to drug
trafficking, and the death of a law-enforcement officer in a situation related
to drugs -- these harsher penalties would apply capital punishment to drug
trafficking itself, particularly to the leaders of trafficking organizations.
Thus, we have at least two good examples of other countries -- Singapore and
China -- pursuing a crackdown to dry up the drug supply and hence the number of
victims by using the death penalty for the most serious dealers. I'll feature
the death penalty approach in Singapore in this post, and discuss the approach
used in China in my next post.
The Death Penalty in Singapore
Singapore has had capital punishment since its days as a British colony, and
this is one reason that Singapore prides itself as being a very safe country in
which to live.
At one time, Singapore had the 2nd-highest per-capita execution rate in the
world -- from 1994 to 1998. In a survey taken in 2005, 95% of the population of
Singapore believed in keeping the death penalty. In recent years the use of the
penalty has declined, since only 2 people were executed in 2014, and no one in
2012 and 2013. This indicates that the approach has worked.
Singapore uses hanging to carry out its executions. However, Singapore lifted
the mandatory death penalty for those convicted of drug trafficking or murder
under certain circumstances, so the judge can sentence such offenders to life
imprisonment, with the possibility of 2 appeals. Though rare, these appeals can
be to a High Court Judge, the Court of Appeal, and finally to the President.
Singapore is particularly harsh on prisoners in drug cases in that 70% of the
hangings have been for drug-related offenses. Under the penal code, just taking
drugs into Singapore merits the death penalty, so this offense is right up
there with various violent and very serious crimes, including waging or
attempting to wage war against the government, piracy that endangers life,
murder, kidnapping, and robbery by five or more people that results in a death.
In particular, under Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, this mandatory
death sentence applies to anyone importing, exporting, or found in possession
of more than the following:
- 1200 grams of opium and containing more than 30 grams of morphine
- 30 grams of morphine
- 15 grams of diamorphine (heroin)
- 30 grams of cocaine
- 500 grams of cannabis or 1000 grams of a cannabis mixture
- 250 grams of methamphetamine.
Plus there is a sentence for anyone manufacturing certain types of drugs
including:
- morphine
- diamorphine (heroin)
- cocaine
- methamphetamine
It is also presumed, under the law, that any person with a controlled drug in
his or her possession knows the nature of the drug.
These death penalty provisions seem to have been effective, in that according
to some reports, Singapore has one of the lowest prevalence of drug abuse
around the world. For instance, one blogger Benjamin Chang, reports that in
over 20 years, the number of drug abusers arrested each year has declined from
over 6000 in the early 1990s to about 2000 in 2011. There has also been a
decline in the number executed for drug related crimes from the period when
these executions were at a peak from 1994 to 2001, averaging about 20 to 40
executions a year. They dropped from zero to 3 each year during the period from
2007 to 2017.[1]
The government and its citizens believe that the policy has helped to keep
Singaporeans safe. In the government view, the death penalty is only used in
the most serious of crimes, including drug offenses, which sends a strong
message of deterrence to potential offenders. As stated by the Ministry of Home
Affairs in January 2004 -- a position reaffirmed by the continuation of
Singapore's death penalty policies: "The application of the death penalty is
only reserved for 'very serious crimes ... (the) death penalty has been
effective in keeping Singapore one of the safest places in the world to work
and live in." More recently, a similar statement about the effectiveness of the
death penalty has been asserted by Vivian Balakrisknan, the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, in a speech to the UN in September 2016. As she asserted: "In our
view, capital punishment for drug-related offenses and for murder has been a
key element in keeping Singapore drug free and keeping Singapore safe.'[2]
Additionally, the success of combating drug abuse with the death penalty has
inspired some American elected officials and office-seekers since 2012 to urge
applying the Singaporean model in the U.S. For example, Michael Bloomberg, once
a Mayor of New York City, said that the U.S. could learn from nations like
Singapore's approach to drug trafficking in that "executing a handful of people
saves thousands and thousands of lives." And Newt Gingrich, a high-profile
Republican, has long advocated bringing Singaporean methods to support the U.S.
War on Drugs.
Thus, this is one approach to dealing with drugs through capital punishment
that definitely deserves consideration in the U.S. today. I'll discuss the
approach used in China in my next post.
(source: Paul Brakke, expertclick.com)
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